Most staggering perhaps is the appearance of no checks on the lending practices of banks, mortgage lenders, loan operators or credit card suppliers.

The lesson is to beef up our own consumer protections and not to follow the path trodden by our American cousins. It seems they have invented a modern form of slavery for the majority of Americans, even if it looks pc [a bitter comment on the colour, race, age and disability blindness of the new plantation owners – even lack of income seemed unimportant to them].

When the economic history of this time comes to be written I hope the historians will have the courage and perception of Keynes and Galbraith in their descriptions of how the Great Depression came about.

In the meantime I can only recommend to make no new debt and to apply to the paying off of what debt you have [this will be according to your own needs and decisions]. And to fight vigorously any unfair treatment by any institution.